"She’s as likely to rap about phosphates and integers as she is to name-check Serena Williams or Emmitt Till. Her delivery is piercing, her perspective refreshing." - Pitchfork
SAMMUS (Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo) is an Ithaca-raised, Philadelphia-based rap artist, producer, and PhD student in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. Known as much for her rousing stage presence as she is for her prowess as a beatmaker and lyricist, Sammus has spent the past several years cultivating a strong following of activists, hip hop heads, punks, and self-identified nerds and geeks, among others.
In addition to managing a full-time music career, Enongo has spent the past eight years as a public-school and college level educator. After graduating from Cornell University in 2008 with a double BA in Sociology and Science & Technology Studies, she was accepted into the national teaching program Teach for America and placed in Houston Texas, where she taught elementary math and science between 2008 to 2010. In the fall semester of 2011 she returned to Cornell as a PhD candidate to pursue an interest a wide array of sound studies topics, including sound and gaming as well as the identity politics of community studios. As an academic in training and very-vocal feminist, Enongo has produced articles for publications such as Bitch, For Harriet, Sounding Out!, and The Mary Sue related to issues of race, hip-hop, gaming, and feminism.
Miss Margaret Hart (1911 - 2004) was the first student of color to graduate from North Adams State Teachers College, now the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, in 1935. She received a master’s degree at Columbia State Teachers College in New York and an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy from North Adams State Teachers College.
The Margaret Hart concert is annual production of MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center. Each year, box office proceeds are donated to the Margart A. Hart Scholarship Fund.